Fiber Optics Engineering

Within the past few decades, information technologies have been evolving at a tremendous rate, causing profound changes to our world and our ways of life. In particular, fiber optics has been playing an increasingly crucial role within the telecommunication revolution. Not only most long-distance links are fiber based, but optical fibers are increasingly approaching the individual end users, providing wide bandwidth links to support all kinds of data-intensive applications such as video, voice, and data services. As an engineering discipline, fiber optics is both fascinating and challenging. Fiber optics is an area that incorporates elements from a wide range of techno- gies including optics, microelectronics, quantum electronics, semiconductors, and networking. As a result of rapid changes in almost all of these areas, fiber optics is a fast evolving field. Therefore, the need for up-to-date texts that address this growing field from an interdisciplinary perspective persists. This book presents an overview of fiber optics from a practical, engineering perspective. Therefore, in addition to topics such as lasers, detectors, and optical fibers, several topics related to electronic circuits that generate, detect, and process the optical signals are covered. In other words, this book attempts to present fiber optics not so much in terms of a field of “optics” but more from the perspective of an engineering field within “optoelectronics.

Here is an expert guide for applying fiber optics in telecommunications, local area networks, and point-to-point transfer. It establishes a basis for component and design selection by means of comparative evaluation. Charts/graphs.

This straightforward text examines the scientific principles, characterization techniques, and fabrication methods used to design and produce high quality optical fibers. Polymer Fiber Optics: Materials, Physics, and Applications focuses on the fundamental concepts that will continue to play a role in future research and applications. This book documents the underlying physics of polymer fibers, particularly aspects of light interaction, and details the practical considerations for a broad range of characterization techniques used to investigate new phenomena. The book presents basic fabrication techniques and protocols that will likely remain useful as new advances address specific processing challenges. The author presents a fresh approach to standard derivations, using numerous figures and diagrams to break down complex concepts and illustrate theoretical calculations. The final chapters draw attention to the latest directions in research and novel applications, including photomechanical actuation, electro-optic fibers, and smart materials.

Since the technology has moved strongly into a number of different areas a textbook of this sort could be used by a wide variety of academic departments including physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, aerospace engineering and bioengineering. To make the second edition as widely appealing as possible a series of significant upgrades were made. 1. The book is structured to support a variety of academic programs and it can also be used as a general reference by practicing engineers and scientists. 2. The introductory chapter has been revised to outline the new content of the second edition and provide a overview of the current status of fiber optic sensor technology. 3. A new, extensive chapter has been added covering fiber optic grating sensor technology and its application to aerospace, civil structures, oil and gas and power generating applications. 4. A second new chapter has been added on the emerging field of biomedical fiber optic sensors. This is one of the most rapidly growing fields of use for fiber optic sensors and with rising health costs and medical advances promises to be an important area for many years to come.

Application of Optical Fiber in Engineering chronicles the recent progress in the research and development of optical fiber technology and examines present and future opportunities by presenting the latest advances on key topics such as birefringence and polarization mode dispersion characteristics, quantum communication, polymer optical fiber grating, optical fiber sensing devices and the Raman fiber laser. All the contributing authors are experts in the field, and this book contains their latest research. This book will provide an invaluable source for researchers, engineers, and advanced students in the field of optical fibers, photonics, optoelectronics, fiber lasers, and sensors.

* Ideal for those with some background in communications but without previous knowledge of fiber optics * Provides a comprehensive treatment of the fundamentals of fiber optic systems and their individual components * Places emphasis on practical techniques of component installation and system design Fiber Optics is a technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibers) to transmit data. A fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting messages modulated onto light waves. Fiber optics have several advantages over traditional metal communications lines. While there are plenty of theoretical texts on fiber optics, high-level engineering texts and installation guides, there are few comprehensive applied texts for practicing engineers. This book covers design issues, installation and troubleshooting in the right depth for engineers working in industry. Readers will use this knowledge to develop the required techniques for design, installation and maintenance of their own fiber optic systems.

The combination of laser and optoelectronics with optical fiber technology can enhance the seamless activities of fiber-optic communications and fiber-sensor arena. This book discusses foundations of laser technology, non-linear optics, laser and fiber-optic applications in telecommunication and sensing fields including fundamentals and recent developments in photonics technology. Accumulated chapters cover constituent materials, techniques of measurement of non-linear optical properties of nanomaterials, photonic crystals and pertinent applications in medical, high voltage engineering and, in optical computations and designing logic gates.

CD-ROM contains: a software package for designing fiber-optic communication systems called "OptiSystem Lite" and a set of problems for each chapter.